Owl in the Family Sweater

My first completed project of 2016 was a sweater for my grandnephew Bug's third birthday.

Bug's still so little that his sweaters can be easily made from stash yarn. I searched Ravelry for a cute pattern for a little boy's sweater, decided on the Night Owl pattern, designed by Berroco, then rummaged through my bag of worsted weight yarn for some suitable colours. I chose a palette of more woodsy and owl-like colours than were used for the sample. I won't provide the links for the kinds of yarn I used as I usually do because they were just your basic inexpensive acrylic worsted. I did end up having to buy one extra ball of the main colour for $4, but that was the only expense for this project. This pattern is out of print, which meant that I had to recreate the design by charting the owl stitches and using the schematics from a size four child's sweater pattern. This took a little time, but it was free.

Here's the completed sweater, in a size four. I'm more or less pleased with it. I added a stripe to the neckline, waistband, and cuffs because the design looked a little too plain to me. When I was at the mid-owl chart point of this project, I regretted my colour choices because I wasn't liking the way they were playing out, but now that the item is finished I think they look acceptable. I do wish I'd shaped the sleeve tops a little because they sit slightly oddly, but the sweater will do as is. When accompanied by some sort of toy, of course, because three-year-old boys don't care very much about new sweaters, especially if they're to get them in July.

Even allowing for the one new skein of worsted I bought, this sweater used up 110 grams of stash yarn.